White Knight/Proteus?

Would nayone care to guess at the design relationship betwen these two
Rutan designs?
In particular I'm curious as to whether Burt really intended to use
Proteus as a X-prize carrier, or if it was something Scaled were
already working on, and said was part of an X-prize system so they'd
seem futher along than they actually were.
If Proteus was to have been used as a launch platform, what reasons
could there be for dropping it in favour of White Knight? Insufficant
ground clearance perhaps?

Andy

"andy2001" wrote in message
om...
Would nayone care to guess at the design relationship betwen these two
Rutan designs?
In particular I'm curious as to whether Burt really intended to use
Proteus as a X-prize carrier, or if it was something Scaled were
already working on, and said was part of an X-prize system so they'd
seem futher along than they actually were.
If Proteus was to have been used as a launch platform, what reasons
could there be for dropping it in favour of White Knight? Insufficant
ground clearance perhaps?

Andy

Proteus was originally designed to carry a communications package
and also was designed to operate either as a manned or an unmanned
vehicle. It has been used as somewhat of a combination, as an
unmanned vehicle with a pilot along as a safety measure.

I am just guessing, but I suspect that the White Knight has a greater
payload capacity than Proteus and I think you are correct in saying
that it has better ground clearance.

Proteus has been used by Northrop Grumman for some time now.
I don't know if their is just the one or if any more have been supplied.
Perhaps someone more familiar with what Scaled Composites is
doing might say or perhaps their are some security limitations on
this.

Mike Walsh

(andy2001) wrote in message . com...
If Proteus was to have been used as a launch platform, what reasons
could there be for dropping it in favour of White Knight? Insufficant
ground clearance perhaps?

Andy

It was in fact mentioned in the xprize flight webcasts (which you can
replay at the xprize site) that they initially planned to use proteus,
but found that they needed a more capable aircraft. It isn't said when
in the design process this happened, but I'd guess it was fairly
early.

It was also mentioned that the wings on white knight can be extended
for greater payload.